On Saturday, February 23, 2013, high school students from throughout Hawai‘i competed in the 11th annual Hawai‘i regional competition for the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), the “Aloha Bowl.” Five high school students from Maui High School won the competition and will represent Hawai‘i in the 16th annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl on April 18 - 21, 2013 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Members of the winning team include Steven Okada (team captain), Bryson Galapon, Gabriel Salazar, Christopher Kim, and Riley Camp. Ed Ginoza, retired science teacher, coached the team. This is Maui High’s sixth win in eleven years. Among 13 total competing teams, Punahou School took second place and Waiakea High School Team B from the Big Island was awarded third place.

During the competition, students were asked three types of questions: toss-up, bonus and team challenge. Toss-up and bonus questions are in a multiple choice or short answer format. The team challenge questions involve written answers and require higher cognitive skills. Questions cover a range of topics related marine sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, and geology, marine policy, and social sciences. Question difficulty increases as the competition progresses – requiring competitors, for example, to know various conservation and management laws or understand how oceanic plate motion affects seafloor features and mineral chemistry.

The 2013 Aloha Bowl was organized by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) with generous funding and support provided by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, UH Manoa SOEST, UH Manoa's Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR), UH Manoa's Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE), NOAA Marine Debris Program, UH Mānoa Bookstore, UH Sea Grant College Program, and the Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) – Island Earth.